Posted on November 19th, 2012

G.K. Chesterton published Eugenics and Other Evils in 1922. It is an interesting insight into the early eugenics movement, and contains a rebuttal by a great thinker of the twentieth century. There are some pithy gems here, such as: The modern world is insane, not so much because it admits the abnormal as because it cannot recover the normal. and: The thing that really is trying to tyrannise through government is Science…. And the creed that really is levying tithes and capturing schools, the creed that really is enforced by fine and imprisonment, the creed that really is proclaimed not in sermons but in statutes, and spread not by pilgrims but by policemen—that creed is the great but disputed system of thought which began with Evolution…

Posted on October 25th, 2012

Mollie Hemingway has been quite right to expose the religious fervor behind the modern eugenics movement by referring to “The Church of Planned Parenthood.” G.K. Chesterton was on to this long ago. In his Eugenics and Other Evils, he fought against the strict dogmatism of the high priests who were the spiritual forbears of today’s Planned Parenthood: Our priests are not now persecuting, but our doctors are. The imposition of such dogmas constitutes a State Church—in an older and stronger sense than any that can be applied to any supernatural Church to-day. There are still places where the religious minority is forbidden to assemble or to teach in this way or that; and yet more where it is excluded from this or that public…

Posted on August 31st, 2012

More gems from G.K. Chesterton in Eugenics and Other Evils: Government has become ungovernable; that is, it cannot leave off governing. Law has become lawless; that is, it cannot see where laws should stop. The chief feature of our time is the meekness of the mob and the madness of the government.

Posted on August 16th, 2012

The thing that really is trying to tyrannise through government is Science. The thing that really does use the secular arm is Science. And the creed that really is levying tithes and capturing schools, the creed that really is enforced by fine and imprisonment, the creed that really is proclaimed not in sermons but in statutes, and spread not by pilgrims but by policemen—that creed is the great but disputed system of thought which began with Evolution and has ended in Eugenics. Materialism is really our established Church; for the Government will really help it to persecute its heretics. G. K. Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils

Posted on July 16th, 2012

We call in the doctor to save us from death; and, death being admittedly an evil, he has the right to administer the queerest and most recondite pill which he may think is a cure for all such menaces of death. He has not the right to administer death, as the cure for all human ills. – G.K. Chesterton, G. K., Eugenics and Other Evils

Posted on April 4th, 2012

Most Eugenists are Euphemists. I mean merely that short words startle them, while long words soothe them. And they are utterly incapable of translating the one into the other, however obviously they mean the same thing. Say to them “The persuasive and even coercive powers of the citizen should enable him to make sure that the burden of longevity in the previous generation does not become disproportionate and intolerable, especially to the females”; say this to them and they will sway slightly to and fro like babies sent to sleep in cradles. Say to them “Murder your mother,” and they sit up quite suddenly. Yet the two sentences, in cold logic, are exactly the same. –Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith), Eugenics and Other Evils

Posted on March 23rd, 2012

Posted on March 22nd, 2012

In his Eugenics and Other Evils, G.K. Chesterton wrote, Most tyrannies have been possible because men moved too late. It is often essential to resist a tyranny before it exists. It is no answer to say, with a distant optimism, that the scheme is only in the air. A blow from a hatchet can only be parried while it is in the air. The hatchet is in the air. The government has taken one of our churches all the way to the Supreme Court. The President of the LCMS has testified before congress. The Roman bishops have spoken with one voice. Yet the offensive continues, and largely the clergy in our church are silent. Business continues as usual. Except the day is coming soon…